West Ham United manager David Moyes has got it badly wrong with his latest comments on Gianluca Scamacca, writes the Hammer News.
Scamacca was signed from Sassuolo in the summer for around £35 million (Sky Sports).
In my opinion, the 23-year-old is a class above, and he has shown that already in a West Ham shirt with his exceptional technical ability.
Rather than put him straight in the team when he was flying high on confidence after making a big money summer move, Moyes chose to ease him into action slowly.
That was there Scot’s first big mistake in my opinion. Strikers thrive on goals and when the stats aren’t looking good, their confidence will inevitably suffer.
An easy win for Moyes would have been to put Scamacca on penalties. The Italian has scored six from six attempts throughout his career so far (Transfermarkt).
The Scot didn’t even think of doing that though. Scamacca has bagged six goals for us but he has now gone seven without a goal. And the issue is painfully obvious to see as far as I’m concerned…
The Hammers boss spoke to reporters after yesterday’s defeat to Crystal Palace.
And Moyes responded when asked why he brought Scamacca off at half-time, as quoted by Football.London:
“I didn’t think he had offered us enough at the time and I needed to try and do something different.”
Here’s the thing…he didn’t offer us much because Moyes failed to set up his team correctly and as a result, Scamacca was rendered fairly ineffective.
The Italian has been totally isolated up front on his own over the past month or so. He needs bodies in and around him, if he his to be effective. He’s certainly not a striker who will tirelessly run the channels all game.
The fact that we sit so deep as a team is a huge issue as well. Moyes needs to instruct his players to get another 10/20 yards up the pitch, if the Italian is going to have any chance at all of succeeding in a West Ham shirt.
The same thing happened with Sebastien Haller, and West Ham ended up making a massive £25 million loss on the Ivory Coast international hitman.
David Moyes failed to get the best out of Haller and it seems as though history is repeating itself with Gianluca Scamacca.
The former Sassuolo striker is a superb footballer, and he would be lighting it up at any other club right now. Just imagine him playing for a team like Newcastle!!
Moyes needs to realise that Scamacca will continue to struggle in the current setup. The Scot has to change things around drastically, or risk damaging the Italian beyond all repair.